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Installing Nessus 3.0.6

I got Nessus 3.0.6 and the Nessus 3.0 beta5 GUI Client working very nicely on BackTrack2, so I would like to share with you guys how to install it and build a module for it. I am a real Linux newbie, and BackTrack2 is probably the first distro that I am seriously experimenting with(and it was damn good choice), so go easy :-)

EDIT: This tutorial has been updated to use the beta5 version of the Nessus client

Installing Nessus
---------------
1. Download Nessus and the Nessus client, they can be found at http://www.nessus.org/download/index.php, you need to register download Nessus. You MUST register with a valid e-mail address in order to get plugin updates.

You should have the following files:

Nessus-3.0.6-fc5.i386.rpm
NessusClient-3.0.0-es4.i386.rpm

You should NOT have any other RPM's. They will not work! These packages are distro version specific and as far as I know, these distro versions(FC5 and RHELES4) are the only ones that work on BT2.

2. Once you have converted the RPM's, create a directory for the Nessus installation files.

Code:

mkdir <dir/path>

I am going to use /tmp/nessus-3.0.0.6 and /tmp/nessusclient-3.0.0b5 for this example.

3. Run installpkg to copy the installation files to the directory that you created above. The '-root' switch is very important, it redirects the package installation to the directory that you created in the previous step.

Last but not least, check your e-mail for the Nessus plugin feed code. This will allow you to register Nessus and update the plugins. You should receive and e-mail from them with a code. Register Nessus as follows:

Code:

/opt/nessus/bin/nessus-fetch --register XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

Where XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX is your feed code. They usually include the command in the e-mail so all you have to do is copy and paste.

Just a quick note, I ran BT off of a USB drive on a machine that had 256MB RAM, and after starting nessusd, X would partially start and then hang, killing the nessusd process solved the problem. It looks like nessus is a bit of a memory hog, so if you plan on using nessus and the nessus GUI client, make sure the machine that you are using has 512+ MB RAM.